Victory Baptist Church hosts Christmas in July event
Councilmember Debbie Pittman wants to expand lunches to new program for monthly family movie night and more
When kids are out of school for the summer, there isn't much to do in a place like Aragon. Once long ago there was a city pool, and local youth stayed busy with pickup games of baseball or rode their bikes up and down the streets.
These days, they have basketball hoops along those same streets, and ride their bikes. But beyond that the options are limited for Aragon's children, especially for those who might go without meals because school is out.
Though low income summer feeding programs are available at Rockmart and Cedartown area schools for students who rely typically rely on the school cafeteria for their main meals of the day, Aragon is geographically unsuitable to gett i ng y outh to t hose schools they usually go to by bus.
Aragon City Councilmember Debbie Pittman stepped in to do somet hing about i t , and through her own efforts and that of her daughter Kayla have been making and serving meals for children who otherwise would likely go hungry during these months.
Pittman got the help of the city ( she abstained from the formal vote for funds, totaling less than $ 1,000) t o help make meals for the local youth and has been operating out of the Aragon Community Center providing lunches to any youth in t he c ommunity who wants a meal and to stay in the air conditioning while they do it.
"We have a lot of kids, and other than Wednesday night at church, they depend on that meal," Pittman said. "And we have some that when they stop the summer lunches, they wonder 'what are we going to eat for the next two weeks?'"
Pittman - who works third shift as a nurse and was elected to the council last fall - makes the meals in the morning after she comes home from work, then heads over to the community center to setup.
"I don't mind coming home and making the meals, and then coming here and t hen going home and sleeping at three until I have to get up again," she said. "I want to make sure these kids have something in their stomach."
Kids get a different lunch option each day, ranging from meals like spaghetti and sauce to a sloppy joe and much more. Pittman even provides desserts before sending kids back off to play outside.
"So far they really liked the Frito pie, that was all gone yesterday (July 20). They really liked the sloppy joe's too, all those were gone," she said. "My guess really is anything homemade. They don't want the store bought stuff. They've enjoyed every bit of it."
The meals aren't time consuming, but sometimes making sure she has all the ingredients takes up more than Pittman would like.
"Grocery s hopping takes the longest," she said.
Her hopes in the future that participation increases within the community to donate to her efforts to help feed kids during the summer, and extend those efforts as well into the future.
"We've got to do more to help these kids in the community," she said. "People say ' well you need to do more things to help the kids,' but we need those same people to show up and do the work and make the donations."
To those ends, Pittman's organizing an effort to also put together a special program for the f i nal Friday of f ree lunches for the community of the summer on Aug. 4, when efforts to put together not just lunch but an evening program before kids have to go back to school to spend time with their parents for a family movie night. Those details are still in the works and will be announced soon, Pittman said.
"And we're going to try to do that at least once a month following that," she said.
Pittman's also working to organize efforts to involve senior citizen's at the Aragon Community Center such as bingo or other activities and get more residents involved in community efforts as a whole. It's also hoped to get more use out of the community center as well, which was newly renovated in the past months to get new floors, paint and work done to update it throughout and make it a more useable space.
Pittman also mentioned a need for volunteers and donations to future programs. Those interested in helping out can contact Pittman through City Hall by contacting 770684-6563.